Ken Hall Reports: Oscar nominee films pose political questions

Sunday

Feb 24, 2013 at 2:00 AM

With a dozen nominations and high expectations, "Lincoln" is bound to be the center of attention tonight. It will be either the big Oscar winner or the victim of voters who decided they would not do what was expected.

Ken Hall

With a dozen nominations and high expectations, "Lincoln" is bound to be the center of attention tonight. It will be either the big Oscar winner or the victim of voters who decided they would not do what was expected.

Any "Lincoln" losses are likely to come from "Argo," shunned by some Oscar nominators but backed by many a voter at many a contest leading up to the big night. And then there's "Zero Dark Thirty," the film that that was supposed to give "Lincoln" the most competition, but faded.

For the record, I'd still vote for "Lincoln" as best picture, but I'd put "Silver Linings Playbook" second and "Beasts of the Southern Wild" third. I've never been able to get a job as a movie critic, so I thought I'd just slip that in.

Now back to politics.

Hollywood will vote whatever way Hollywood does for the usual Hollywood reasons. For the rest of us, this has been an unusual movie season full of talk that goes well beyond entertainment.

"Lincoln" got us thinking about race, "Argo" got us thinking about Iran and "Zero Dark Thirty" got us thinking about torture.

While we have had a few fact-based films in the Oscar spotlight over the years, most recently "The Hurt Locker" in 2009, with its focus on disabling bombs in Iraq, you would have to go back to 1991 and Oliver Stone's "JFK" to find a big film that prompted a big national reevaluation.

With its fictional implications that Lyndon Johnson was involved in a plot to assassinate President Kennedy, "JFK" went far beyond the conclusions of any responsible historian. The official reaction also went far beyond that for most films. As you can read in the national Archives: " "» frustrated by by the lack of access and disturbed by the conclusions of Oliver Stone's 'JFK,' Congress passed the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 (JFK Act), mandating the gathering and opening of all records concerned with the death of the president."

So what will happen this year? "Lincoln" is not likely to bring much more attention to the issue of race — something we already focus on quite a bit. "Argo" is not likely to add to our desire to study relations with troubled nations in a very troubled area.

Then there's torture.

"Zero Dark Thirty" draws a clear plot line between waterboarding and the information that led to the killing of Osama Bin Laden. Confronted with that, some who made the movie have tried to pull back, but I have yet to meet anyone who saw the film who missed the connection.

If wild cinematic speculation about who killed JFK could move Congress in 1992 to insist on clearing the air, the implications of "Zero Dark Thirty" should be more than enough for a similar probe.

By the way, a movie does not have to win to have this impact. "JFK" lost to a movie with a different take on torture — "Silence of the Lambs."

thrkenhall@gmail.com

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